Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari, who was held in France for over a year, has returned home, Iranian state television reported Wednesday, a week after Iran released two French citizens.
"Mahdieh Esfandiari, a Palestinian rights activist, has returned to Iran after her release from prison in France," state television said.
Esfandiari's release came a week after French citizens Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who spent more than three years in Iranian prisons on espionage charges, arrived in France.
Iran had previously suggested the couple could be freed as part of an exchange for Esfandiari.
Esfandiari, around 40 years old, was arrested in France in February last year on charges of promoting terrorism and released on bail in October.
In February this year, a French court sentenced her to one year in prison for justifying terrorism over comments she made on social media, including regarding the Palestinian group Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
She had lived in France since 2018, graduating from the University of Lyon and working as a translator.
Kohler and Paris were arrested in Iran in May 2022 but were freed in November after more than three years in prison on espionage charges that their families vehemently deny.
They were taken by French diplomats to France's mission in Tehran, where they lived under house arrest until their full release on April 7.
